Category Archives: 6-12

Estimation vs. Calculation is one of many interactive math bulletin board ideas made available by Kutztown University. Each of the bulletin boards is designed by a college student studying to become a teacher, has accompanying pictures, directions on how to replicate the board, and worksheets. Most of them are for secondary school, but I noticed a few, such as the Estimation one, that would be appropriate for upper elementary. I especially liked the warning that appeared at the end of the instructions for Estimation vs. Calculation. The creator, Sara Karahoca, states, “WARNING!!!!!! A bulletin board with candy is very enticing. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS (as they will eat all your candy). NOT RECOMMENDED IN HIGH TRAFFIC/UNSUPERVISED AREAS (as students, hungry professional staff, and/or wild animals may also eat all your candy and steal your smiley faces.)” A sense of humor always helps!

The History of English in Ten Minutes is a series of short animated videos from Open University. They are humorous and quick – so quick that you may need to replay them a few times in order for them to sink in. They are slightly irreverent, and aimed at the 12 and up crowd, so please preview them before showing them to a class. I like the Shakespeare one since my daughter has been recently studying the famous playwright:

Open University also offers 7 videos in their series 60-Second Adventures in Thought, which includes interesting philosophical topics such as The Grandfather Paradox.

I’ve seen versions of this floating around the web from time to time, but KB Connected just posted one that I hadn’t seen yet. It’s a very powerful poem by Taylor Mali, and the video incorporates text and photos in a way that really “packs a punch”, so to speak. It will inspire and motivate you if you are a teacher. I can also see certain contexts in which it would be valuable to show to students. Be aware that there is a word that, though changed in the text, can still be easily inferred from the audio, so this would not be a video to show young children.
Vodpod videos no longer available.